Web Exclusive: Class ring found 40 years later

(KCRA/CNN) - The male half of a California couple has been in the doghouse for decades, after he lost his then-girlfriend's class ring. Now, 38 years later -- it's been found!

Tim Bunnell and Nancy Den Dulk were high school sweethearts who swapped class rings, but Bunnell lost his while playing football at Ripon High School. "It wasn't good at all," says Tim Bunnell.

Tim looked and looked for her ring. "Every time I would go out on the field, I would look down come out there, I would look down on the grass, and hopefully find it, you know, and hopefully get me out of trouble a little bit," says Bunnell.

Then, while crews were replacing sod on the field recently, someone spotted a shiny object. "One of the cheerleaders came up to me and had a ring in her hand," says Nancy Dulk. The ring had a year on it -- it said 1974. "I was in shock, yeah. I was just very excited," says Nancy.

Even after all these years, more than 30 years and thousands and thousands of football games on this field, the ring was found in tact with barely a scratch on it.

"They take the sod off and brought dirt in, they've been trenching and it's just unbelievable to think that they found it," says Nancy. Now, Tim and Nancy, all these years later, still sweethearts and Nancy is able to wear her wedding ring and class ring together.